...Kazuhito Futagamitossed 50 pitches to Ikusei players Kosei Fujii and Shintaro Tanaka on Friday. It was the first time Futagami threw to live batters since an exhibition game start on 3/12 against Hiroshima at Skymark Stadium. Futagami will likely pitch during in a practice game on the 28th against Kansai Medical Sports Gakuin.

...Tomoyuki Kubota was taken off the active roster on Thursday. He quickly made his way to Naruohama on Friday and got to work on his mechanics, throwing 60 pitches in the bullpen. Kubota is already scheduled to pitch in a Ni-gun game against Chunichi on the 25th. The hope is that he'll be ready to return to the active roster in 10 days.